Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics

IDEA Public Schools

Weslaco, TX (remote)

Current - 2023

• Leads 11 person research and analytics team providing business intelligence as well as conducting research and development, evaluation, analysis, data product development, organizational improvement initiatives, and network growth strategy for charter school management organization supporting 143 schools in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Ohio that educate 85,000 students from grades K-12. One-year staff retention of 100%; three-year retention of 85%.
• Created large-scale survey strategy, generating $200K+ in savings by insourcing surveys and survey reporting (using PowerBI and ObservableJS). Strategy includes stratified, cluster-sampled monthly staff surveys (adjusted post-survey via multilevel regression and poststratification) and an annual all-staff survey of 10,000+ respondents. Other surveys include annual teacher, family, and student surveys.
• Designed proof of concept for using large language models (LLMs) from OpenAI (GTP-3.5 Turbo and GPT-4) to summarize and query open-ended responses from 10,000+ respondents on annual staff experience survey.
• Guided the development of a GIS application (Shiny app with analysis in R) providing spatial analysis of public, commercial, and internal data to assess school location suitability, resulting $35M reduction in misallocated spending. Additionally, managed the redesign of growth strategy and go/no-go process of new sites and regions, coordinating the efforts of the External Affairs, Operations, Finance, and R&A teams.
• Developed reporting process, including automated slide generation, that analyzes and visualizes staff retention data.
• Led creation of first day of school enrollment forecasting model, that leverages tree-based ensemble models (random forest, XGboost) to generate predictions and predictive intervals for each grade in all 143 schools; accurately identified 90% of schools likely to miss budget driving targets, allowing early adjustments by enrollment, and finance teams. Model outputs are displayed in a Shiny app using ggplot2.
• Net Promoter Score of +90 for R&A services for 3+ years.

Vice President of Data Analytics

IDEA Public Schools

Weslaco, TX (remote)

2023 - 2020

• Manages teams tasked with rapid decision support and business intelligence focused on causal inference and predictive analytics, including evaluations of Pre-K effectiveness, Afterscheduling impacts, the impact of at-home vs in-person learning environments; typical methods included high quatliy visualization of linear models, random forest estimation, matching, regression discontinuity, as well as distributional tests.
• Implemented Qualtrics and Posit Connect to facilitate data collection, recurrent analysis, data applications, and automated report generation.
• Authored internal R packages that facilitate access to and exploration of IDEA’s data warehouse, support use of brand-compliant colors with ggplot2 graphics, and standardized reports rendered as PDFs, Word documents, HTML web pages, and automated emails.
• Coordinates the cooperative authorship of the IDEA Research and Analysis Team Manual, which documents team tenets, best practices, and approaches for technical team members.

Chief of Staff

KIPP Chicago Schools

Chicago, IL

2020 - 2017

• Led business intelligence and progress monitoring initiatives across the region, directly leading to the growth from 2 to 8 campuses while achieving highest results of any network of schools within Chicago Public Schools (634 schools, of which 121 are charter schools). Additionally earned the longest charter renewal (7 years) ever awarded in Illinois.
• Supervised data science team that collects, stores, manages, and analyzes data across our region of 8 schools, 3,000 students, 1,000 alumni, and 325 teachers. Includes the design and implementation of predictive models, algorithms, interactive dashboards, memos, and reports.
• Managed all progress monitoring meetings with senior leadership team (Executive Director, C-level, and Board of Directors) and presentation and communication of our analyses to all of our stakeholders
• Led “Red Team” and Go/No-Go analysis and decision-making framework to approve the successful launch of KIPP Detroit Schools.

Chief Information Officer

KIPP Chicago Schools

Chicago, IL

2017 - 2016

• Managed data science team that tripled in size.
• Managed selection, implementation, and integration of positive behavioral intervention and supports platform (DeansList) for 8 schools serving 2,000 students, leading to 130% reduction in out-of-school and in-school suspensions year-over-year.

Director of Research & Analysis

KIPP Chicago Schools

Chicago, IL

2016 - 2012

• Responsible for the presentation and communication of our analyses to all of our stakeholders: students, teachers, parents, school leaders, regional officers, Chicago Public Schools, and donors.
• Encourage inquisitiveness by creating thoughtful visualizations and rigorous analyses of any and all data.

Consultant

Professionalink & John Hancock

Washington, DC & Boston, MA

2003 - 2002

• Special Projects for CEO and CFO of John Hancock Financial Services.
• Root cause analysis and solution design for Long-Term Care application process that led to a 200% reduction in time to underwrite.
• Performed opportunity and savings analysis for potential large merger for insurance companies.

Product Planner

The Adrenaline Group

Washington, DC

2002 - 2000

• Project lead on web application development projects including automated subprime home loan underwriting, NASDAQ monitoring and surveillance, and development stack evaluations

Senior Consultant

Arthur Andersen LLP

Washington, DC

2000 - 1997

• Analysis of intangible liabilities for Fortune 500 healthcare company.
• Devised and implemented algorithm for setting hotel and meal per diem rates for the General Services Administration.

Research Fellow

Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy

New York University

2011 - 2010

• Independently analyzed and constructed statistical models for large data sets pertaining to carbon decomposition rates.
• Taught courses on globalization and political violence to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Research Fellow

Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence

Yale University

2010 - 2009

• Researched the origins of electoral violence
• Devised new methods for studying the network effects of violence on voter behavior.

Preceptor

Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences

University of Chicago

2012 - 2011

• Teaching social science theory, coordinating graduate seminar, and supervising graduate student theses.

Research Fellow

Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy

New York University

2011 - 2010

• Teaching courses on globalization and political violence to both undergraduate and graduate students.

ABD, Political Science (Quantitative Methods & Comparative Politics)

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

2012 - 2005

• Focused on the the uses and consequences of violence during elections, including fieldwork in Kingston, Jamaica.
• Methods included applied game theory, network flow models, spatial estimation, multilevel models, Bayesian estimation, and agent-based models.

MA, Political Science

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

2007 - 2005

MPP

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

2005 - 2003

• Graduated with Honors
• Thesis: Agent Based Simulation of Violence in Electoral Competitions

BA, Economics

The College of William & Mary

Williamsburg, VA

1998 - 1994

• Thesis: An Economic History of the Second Bank of the United States